1,000-name petition for Gateway Kintore handed over to local councillors

A petition carrying the names of more than a thousand people has been handed over to local councillors urging Aberdeenshire Council to approve a plan that would bring new facilities for the expanding town of Kintore.

The petition calls for an early decision on the Gateway Kintore development, on a 31-acre site adjacent to the town’s Broomhill Roundabout on the A96. In January a master plan for the development was submitted to Aberdeenshire Council planners.

Kevin Watt (left), chairman of Kintore and District Community Council, hands over the petition in front of Kintore Town House, to councillors Nan Cullinane, Martin Ford and Fergus Hood. The master plan, prepared by architects Halliday Fraser Munro, includes a supermarket, filling station, 100-bedroom hotel, restaurants, nursery, community facilities, play barn and business premises.

The master plan also incorporates an upgrade of the Broomhill roundabout, retaining direct access to Kintore for traffic heading north on the A96 from Aberdeen. Under the plans by the roads authority, this direct access to KIntore would be closed and traffic diverted across a new link road to the B944 Kemnay road.

Kintore hit the headlines in the past decade when it became the fastest-growing town in Scotland, with more than 1,000 new homes added since 2000. There are proposals to build up to 1,200 more.

Kintore and District Community Council say the facilities proposed in Gateway Kintore are desperately needed for a town with a population of almost 4,500. At the moment residents of Kintore have to travel to Aberdeen, Inverurie or other centres for supermarket shopping or to refuel cars.

Kevin Watt, chairman of Kintore and District Community Council, who handed over the petition, says:

“Kintore and District Community Council has supported the Gateway Kintore proposal from the outset, because we see it providing the kind of facilities that a rapidly-expanding town like Kintore desperately needs.

“The strength of public feeling over the lack of facilities in Kintore is amply illustrated by the 1,000 names and the hundreds of supportive comments on the Gateway Kintore petition.

“Having inexplicably failed to get the Gateway Kintore development added to the local plan, I hope that this master plan will now provide the opportunity to get this plan in front of councillors for an early decision.

“Apart from the facilities on the Gateway Kintore site there is also strong support for the plan to upgrade the Broomhill roundabout. The roads authority’s proposal to divert traffic away from Kintore, on a new link road joining the B944, is clearly not welcome.”

Support for the Gateway Kintore proposal has come from other communities in the area, including Blackburn, Fintray, Kinellar, Kemnay, Thainstone, Port Elphinstone, Inverurie and Garioch communities.

Inverurie Business Association has also come out in support of Gateway Kintore, saying that it would help to absorb some of the financial outflow from the catchment area, while easing traffic congestion in Inverurie. They also see it reducing costs for families in Kintore and Kemnay and creating employment.